“People attain degrees for all sorts of reasons, and money is not necessarily the primary reason.”
As someone with an advanced degree, pray tell me what sorts of reasons those are, that someone or their parents, or taxpayers, should pay enormous sums of money and get horribly into debt to indulge them.
There are few universities now that teach young people how to think, versus what to think; few that teach rigorous mental, emotional, moral or even practical discipline. Going to college has largely become the default position now for those who can’t or won’t do anything more meaningful and useful with their lives.
The simple truth of life is that, in the long run, if a person has nothing of value to offer to others, nobody will want to support that person’s existence. To inculcate generation after generation with the narcissistic conceit that they are entitled to life’s necessities or even other people’s good will whether or not they offer anything useful in exchange is pure nonsense, and nonsense that has caused and will cause great suffering.
If people simply want to learn the liberal arts, I suggest they read the Great Books or watch courses from the Teaching Company. For young people who lack direction and internal discipline, the military presents by far the best option for practical maturation and training, not college. When my slightly older - past military age - patients (I’m a shrink) tell me they are thinking of going back to school to get a degree in impractical whatever, I suggest they consider instead applying for an apprenticeship in, say, welding at the local shipyard, or apprentice with a local plumber or electrician. Those who have followed that advice have thanked me.
As a homeschooling dad, it has been my pleasure to give my children a classical Christian education using the Veritas Omnibus curriculum. In this manner my older two children have spent their high school years developing their critical thinking skills. On this particular narrow point they have already advanced beyond the majority of college undergraduates. Consequently I feel quite justified in looking at their college experience as simply vocational training.